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' |image= |series= |production=40271-116 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin |director=Paul Lynch |imdbref=tt0708668 |guests=Carolyn McCormick as Minuet, Gene Dynarski as Orfil Quinteros, Katy Boyer as Zero One, Alexandra Johnson as One Zero, Iva Lane as Zero Zero, Kelli Ann McNally as One One, Jack Sheldon as Piano Player, Abdul Salaam El Razzac as Bass Player and Ron Brown as Drummer |previous_production=Angel One |next_production=Home Soil |episode=TNG S01E15 |airdate=30 January 1988 |previous_release=Angel One |next_release=Too Short a Season |story_date(s)=Stardate 41365.9 (2364) |previous_story=Angel One |next_story=Home Soil }} Summary The Enterprise arrives at Starbase 74 for a routine maintenance check. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Commander William Riker greet Starbase Commander Quinteros and a pair of small humanoid aliens known as Bynars; the Bynars heavily rely on their computer technology and work in pairs for best efficiency. Much of the crew take shore leave while Picard, Riker and a skeleton crew remain aboard. Riker is intrigued by the Bynars' claimed upgrades to the holodeck and starts a program in a jazz bar. The program includes a woman named Minuet, by whom Riker is fascinated, both as a beautiful and charming woman, but also by the level of sophistication in her responses. Riker shortly returns with Picard to show him Minuet, and he too is amazed by the simulation. Meanwhile, the Bynars discreetly create a catastrophic failure in the ship's warp core. Lt. Cmdr. Data and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge are unable to locate Picard or Riker and, assuming them to already be on the Starbase, order an emergency evacuation. They set the ship to leave the Starbase and warp to a safe location before it would explode. However, once they are clear of the dock, the failure disappears and the ship sets course for the Bynar system, the planet Bynaus orbiting Beta Magellan. Data, La Forge, and Quinteros realize that the Bynars are still aboard the ship, but there are currently no other working vessels to follow them. Back on the Enterprise, Riker and Picard leave the simulation to find the ship empty and at warp to the Bynar system, with the ship's controls locked to the bridge. Fearing that the Bynars have taken over the ship for nefarious purposes, they set the ship to self-destruct in 5 minutes and then take the bridge by inter-ship transporter beam and find the Bynars there unconscious. After cancelling the self-destruct, they find the Bynars have uploaded massive amounts of information to the Enterprise computers, but they are unable to decode it. Realizing that Minuet was purposely created by the Bynars as a distraction, Picard and Riker ask the simulation about what is going on as the ship nears the orbit of Bynar. Minuet explains that a star near the Bynar homeworld had gone supernova, and the radiation it emitted would destroy their computer systems, effectively killing the Bynars. They had used the Enterprise to upload their computer information for safekeeping and then planned to download it back to the Bynar computers after the threat of the radiation had passed. With Data's help, Picard and Riker successfully download the data, and the Bynars recover. They apologize for their actions, having feared that Starfleet would refuse to help, though Picard notes they only had to ask. As the Enterprise returns to Starbase, Riker returns to the holodeck to thank Minuet but finds that without the Bynar data, the simulation has regressed to the expected norm for the holodeck, and while Minuet still exists, she is not the same as before. Riker reports to Picard that Minuet is gone. Errors and Explanations Plot Oversights # Quinteros introducing the Bynars as '01' and '10.' They probably use longer number sequences in the same way we use family names. # The sounds made by the Bynars resembling the transmissions from a - then state of the art - 300 baud modem. They may not be able to handle the transmission and reception of information at the faster rates used by more modern modems. # Minuet gaing the ability to speak French by accessing the foreign language files. The Federation probably adopted English as their standard language. # Non use of the saucer seperation procedure. 1) There may not have been time. 2) The Bynars may have disabled the seperation systems, due to them needing all the computer cores on Enterprise to back up their entire planetary computer system. # Picard and Riker both failing to become aware of the emergency while in the holodeck. The Bynars probably blocked all transmission to their combadges and the holodeck, while programing Minuet to distract them both long enough to keep them on board. # Apparent lack of an existing mechanism to allow the Bynars to back up the information on their main computer. Any such mechanism would, most likely, be located in the same system, and would therefore also be disabled by the nova. # Riker not asking the Bynars to recreate Minuet. She was specificaly designed to distract Riker. Equipment Oddities # The holodeck computer producing a trombone when Riker asks for a 'bone'. The computer is programmed to understand the context of instructions given during holodeck simulations. # The computer speaking with a male voice. This could be an experimental setting. # The computer not directly answering Data'a query regarding Picard's location. This could be part of the plan by the Bynars, to ensure there are two people to transmit the stored information to the computer on Bynarus after the nova subsided. # La Forge and Data not using site to site transport. They probably don't want to risk anything which may trigger a premature detonation - assuming the Bynars hadn't temporarily disabled that part of the system. # The holodeck doors staying visable when Picard and Riker question Minuet. Either the Bynars disables the holoimagers in the doors, so Picard and Riker could remain aware of the exit's location, or the proximity sensors for the doors were enhanced, allowing them to stay visible when Picard and Riker went to Minuet. Internet Movie Database Continuity # The Enterprise had already undergone a computer upgrade (shortly after the events in Datalore) It is very unlikely that another up-grade would be preformed so soon. In addition Enterprise has been operational less than a year. As the ship is designed extended missions lasting several years it is never explained why extensive routine maintenance is needed so soon. Possibly done to ensure no lasting effects from the Jarada probe in The Big Goodbye. Incorrectly regarded as goofs # When Picard and Riker learn about the red alert, Minuet's hands are shown in a close-up as being separate and curled. When she is shown in the background, her hands seem to be together as if clapping. This effect is created due to the camera angle and the distant, slightly blurry picture. With a closer look one can see that Minuet holds in fact her hands in the same position throughout the entire scene. However, she has her head turned away in one shot, while in all others, she looks toward Picard and Riker. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 09:21 am: The last time I watched this episode, I started thinking about some of the problems that might occur with a space dock as shown in this episode. First, the Enterprise is one big, massive ship and yet it pulls into a 'space garage' filled with other ships, so Starbase 74 must be an incredibly massive object. Secondly, all the ships were floating in the space dock, but doesn't mass attract mass? Wouldn't pulling inside the station be like flying two feet over the surface of a moon? There is mention of "mooring beams", which I assume to be some kind of tractor beam instead of actual metal beams, but wouldn't that eat up power needlessly? Why not have a docking ring like the Cardassians use, or just orbit the station and beam or shuttle people back and forth? In other episodes space dock has been shown as some kind of mechanical 'hand' which wraps around a ship, so why the need to pull a ship inside a station? The only reason I can see for pulling a ship inside a station is that repair work needs to be done on the hull and working outside in space suits would cause problems. (Which brings up the question, is the 'parking' area inside the station filled with an atmosphere?) The only reason the Enterprise is here is for a computer and holodeck overhaul, not to repair damaged sections of the hull, or replacement of some big piece of equipment. Perhaps they needed to bring the ship inside to link it to the external power supply. # When the Holodeck is creating the different women, why do they form at different tables? If it was only little things like hair color that Riker wanted changed, why not just change that? The Bynars could have modified the operating program, in order to make it easier for Riker to distinguish the different women from each other. # At one point Riker wants the computer to make the woman sultry. How would the computer know what Will considers 'sultry?' The operating program would automatocally access the dictionary definition of sultry. # In the episode Ship in a Bottle, a big deal is made about Holodeck characters being self aware, which seemed to be the fact that they know they are Holodeck characters. However, in this episode and The Big Goodbye, the knowledge that they are just Holodeck characters doesn't change the characters that much. (Well, Leach appears nervous at the opening of the Holodeck doors and Lt. McNary has trouble with what being a fictional character might entail, but that could just be the computer staying true to what is known about the characters' personalities.) Minuet has no problem with Riker asking her what she is "doing in a computer generated gin joint," and later Picard and Riker, very rudely, speak about what a wonderful simulation she is, as if she wasn't there listening to them, and she at no point appears to undergo any kind of change. (And to tell the truth, I don't know what made her so different from any of the characters in The Big Goodbye, or later Holodeck characters. Was she projecting some kind of pheromones to turn Riker on???) Minuet was programmed by the Bynars to explain the situation to Picard and Riker, in order to gain their help. The holocharacters in The Big Goodbye may have temporailly gained self awareness due to the effects of the probe. # For some reason I had trouble believing Picard when he told Riker he might have chosen this locale. Maybe if it had been part of a Dixon Hill story, I could see it, but I don't think of him as being that big a Jazz fan. Perhaps it was part of a Dixon Hill story – after all, Picard recreates a nightclub from a Dixon Hill story in the Enterprise E holodeck during the Borg chase sequance in Star Trek First Contact! # When the Enterprise is evacuating, we see Commander Quinteros and Dr. Crusher looking at the console in Starbase 74. Why is a Medical Doctor apparently manning the console during a ship evacuation? She's probably scanning the transporter records for any potential medical emergencies. # It is stated that Bynus is in the Beta Magellanus system. Does this mean that Bynus is in one of the Magellanic clouds, outside of our galaxy??? More likely in an area which, from Earth, appears to be located in the same patch of sky. Mcb359 on 31 July, 2018 - 19:12: Err... as the computer says, it’s “planet Bynus in the Beta Magellan system”, not Magellanus. Seniram 10:36, August 1, 2018 (UTC) Magellanus could be an alternate name. # If Bynaus is not a member of the Federation, then why were the Bynars allowed free reign over the Enterprise's computers? They are experts in interacting with computer systems. Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation